Words of Wisdom from Ram Dass

My brother Adam is amazing – he’s 6ft 4 and all smile. He’s someone I really look up to (in all senses of the word) and has been an incredible source of support, particularly over the last year. He’s a musician with a massive spiritual streak, and collects quotes, podcasts, YouTube videos to show his friends to blow their minds, and to sample in his music. You can find out more about his psytrance music here.

Ram Dass has so many amazing words and quotes it’s hard to choose favourites. Since being introduced to him and finding him on Facebook, his teachings have helped me to think and be in new ways on almost a daily basis.

When I was creating Dive Down, I pulled back from my support network of friends and family a bit to try and really feel into what had lead me to make the decisions I’d made in my life so far, look at where I had perhaps done things based on fear, and see if I could find different ways of navigating in the future.

Ram Dass was a great source of inspiration during that challenging time.

He doesn’t hold his punches. His words are written (or spoken) with love, but they aren’t always easy to read.

If somebody is a problem for you, it’s not that they should change, it’s that you need to change. If they’re a problem for themselves that’s their karma, if they’re causing you trouble that’s your problem…
– Ram Dass from A Heavy Curriculum

See? 🙂

I think that’s one of the things that I find most helpful about Ram Dass actually, the challenge that he often presents. The way he asks me to look at myself before anyone else, to work on myself before presuming that I can change anything else in the world. To see my own power in the work that I do when I work on myself.

In a lovely bit of circular connection, I picked Adam up from the airport on Thursday after he’d been travelling. He ended his adventures in Hawaii, where he was fortunate enough to spend some time with Ram Dass (now in his nineties) in person. By all accounts they had an awesome time, with a lot of just smiling and sitting in each others company. And, Adam gave him a copy of Dive Down, so I can add a pin to Hawaii in my map of where the books have flown to….

The Ram Dass Foundation Love Serve Remember website is brilliant, and has articles, quotes, podcasts, webcasts and films packed with inspiration. You can find it here: www.ramdass.org

You are loved just for being who you are, just for existing. You don’t have to do anything to earn it…. Imagine that being in this love is like relaxing endlessly into a warm bath that surrounds and supports your every movement, so that every thought and feeling is permeated by it.
– Ram Dass from The Entrance to Oneness